Kurt O thoughts & musings

I recently had a business trip that took me to Middletown, Rhode Island. As I usually do, I took some time to go on a run to see the local sights (so many good things happen when I run!). I ran along the beautiful RI coastline, and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. I stopped at a beach and started thinking about grains of sand. Several verses in scripture mention the sands of the sea in describing an extremely large number. The Lord promised Abraham an innumerable posterity after Abraham demonstrated his faith and obedience: "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore." (Genesis 22:17) In thinking about the number of grains of sand on that beach, I remembered an article I read recently that compared the estimated number of stars in the known universe with the number of grains of sand on earth (specifics from that article coming up shortly). I wanted to

A few weeks ago, I went out for a run. It was a beautiful spring day, just after some heavy rains. I went out on the rail trail nearby, one of my favorite paths to run. As I was returning toward home, I saw two little girls up ahead, huddled together and looking at something on the asphalt trail. When I got next to them, I stopped, hoping I wouldn’t alarm them (I don’t think I did!). I asked them what they were looking at. One of the girls pointed to an earthworm that was on the trail, and said, “It’s a big worm, and my friend named it and said it’s her pet!” After a pause, I said, “You know, worms come out when it rains. If that worm stays on this trail, when the sun comes out and it gets hot, he’ll dry up and die. But, if you pick him up and put him back over in the dirt on the side of the trail, he’ll be okay.” The little girl who had talked to me paused for a moment, then she bent down and picked that worm up, carried him over to the side, and put him into t